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Doctor allegedly found with pot fails to elude Chatham County jail website

Michael Jackson

A Savannah doctor was charged with drug possession Feb. 1 after a traffic stop turned up some marijuana and a pipe, according to a Savannah-Chatham police report.

Also, a Chatham County Sheriff’s Deputy was reprimanded after he removed the doctor’s mug shot from the jail website, the department announced.

At 8:30 p.m. a metro police officer working undercover smelled marijuana coming from a 2007 BMW M6 heading south on Reynolds Street. A uniformed officer stopped the BMW at 63rd Street and Reynolds and also smelled marijuana smoke, the report stated.

The driver of the vehicle, 44-year-old Michael Jackson , gave officers permission to search the car. Inside, they found two white medicine bottles holding a green leafy substance. The search also turned up a wooden pipe, the report stated.

A test of the substance came back positive for marijuana, the report stated.

Jackson was charged with possession of a drug-related object and possession of marijuana, first offense and booked into the Chatham County jail. He was released on bond the next day, jail records show. (Editor's note: Misdemeanor charges in connection with the drug-related object and possession of marijuana were dismissed and the case disposed on Oct. 4, 2012, according to court records.)

A search revealed Jackson is an obstetrician affiliated with the St. Joseph/Candler Health System. Hospital spokesman Scott Larson said the incident is under review by a group of medical staff independent of the system. Larson also said most doctors are not directly employed by the system.

Memorial University Medical Center spokeswoman Dina Stoneking said Jackson was not employed by the hospital. Other details of his affiliation were not immediately known, Stoneking said.

Chatham County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Michelle Gavin said a deputy asked another employee to remove Jackson’s mug shot from public view on the department’s website. The department then received calls asking why the mug shot had vanished, Gavin said.

The online photo returned to the website by Feb. 3 and remained there for the duration of a 72-hour period that the arrests are made public online, she said.

The deputy, whose name was withheld, was reprimanded, she said.
Gavin said the incident was isolated, but some suspects booked into the jail who also are involved in certain police investigations are not posted. Deputies keep a log of those mug shots and later post them once an investigation has been completed, she said.